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Tip On Heartworm Prevention Medication For Dogs

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
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#dogs #dog — Today being the first of the month, will be heartworm prevention medication day for many dogs out there in heartworm territories.  Usually, dogs take one tablet each month for the entire season which in the case of southern Ontario, is from June to November.

My two lhasa apso dogs Chester and Roxie, have been on a brand called Sentinel from puppyhood and we’ve stuck to this brand all along.  Overall, we’ve done well on Sentinel without any problems.  We even source our annual supply from online pet pharmacies now – see my article on my experience with them.

The only thing which I would say that I’m not keen on with Sentinel, is that the company claims that the dogs love the flavoured tablets so they will be easy to take.  I would have to disagree on this.

Whenever I tried to give Sentinel tablets to my two dogs, they would lick the tablets until the brown coating is off exposing the white tablet underneath.  They would refuse to take the white tablets which is where the effective medicine is contained.  I found it impossible for me to to rely on my dogs chewing the entire Sentinel tablet on its own for some strange reason.  And I figure that the tablets without the brown coating are somewhat bitter.

So what I have to do in order to make sure that my dogs finish their entire heartworm prevention medication is to forget about giving them the whole tablet at once.  Instead, I will cut each tablet into little, tiny pieces and mix it with their dog food.  Sometimes tiny pieces of Sentinel are reduced to white powder.

Even if I leave little chunks of the tablets too big, my dogs have been known to leave them in their dog dishes – smart things!  So I really have to make sure the pieces of Sentinel are small enough that they will be mixed in well with the rest of their dog food.  That’s the only way I can get both my dogs to take their heartworm prevention medication successfully.

So a good tip for anybody else who has a picky dog who refuses to take their Sentinel or any other brand of heartworm prevention medication, try cutting up the tablets into small pieces that will be mixed in with the rest of their dog food.  It works for us nicely this way.

sentinel heartworm prevention medication

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Final Heat Wave Of Summer Too Hot For Dogs

Sunday, August 29th, 2010
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#dog #dogs #toronto — Up here in the Toronto area, we are heading into probably the final week of a heat wave for the summer.  Lots of strong sunshine out there for the next couple of days.  Average temperations up here will be about 32 degrees Celcius which is about 89.6 degrees Farenheight.  At these temperatures along with the sunshine, it will be too hot for my Lhasa Apso dogs Chester and Roxie to be outside.

So I’m going to keep them indoors during the daytime until late in the day or even early evening when the sunshine won’t be as strong and perhaps when the temperatures will be a bit lower.  My two dogs in particular get hot really easily during these types of days and they let me know with their heavy panting.

This will be the same for many other dogs out there as well so do be careful during the heat.  Definitely do not leave your dogs inside your car parked outside during these days.  Better to just leave them at home with the air conditioner turned on if necessary.

There have been cases where dogs left inside hot cars where police and animal control officers were called in by worried passerbys.  Owners later got fined or even arrested for their negligence.

So do the right thing over the next couple of days.  Enjoy the last part of summer but also have some common sense when it comes to your dogs outside in the heat.

For me, I’m going to spend much of the daytime working inside on my next book which will be on potty training dogs with a litterbox.  My two dogs will probably be either watching the world go by from a window while they are nice and cool inside or taking their naps.

By the way, summer time and fall are great times to do some dog training outdoors with your dog.   I still put my dogs through some fun drills outside during our walks usually late in the afternoon or early evenings.  If you haven’t seen my basic dog training video yet, you can do so for free.  Just look at the info on this at the blog sidebar on the top left or at the Dog Training tab at my Life With Dogs Facebook page.

The Crowd Favorite
Creative Commons License photo credit: Morgan for Mizzou

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Half Day With Cherry Eye

Monday, August 23rd, 2010
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#dog #dogs #doghealth #pethealth — Well, looks like when I woke up yesterday morning, my boy Chester had Cherry eye again in the same eye as before.  My original post with a photo I took showing him with his Cherry eye condition is still there if you haven’t seen Cherry eye before.

I still had eye ointment left over from the last time.  I gave him a dosage that very morning.  By lunchtime, the Cherry eye was still there so I applied another application after lunch.  After some work at home, we took a nap in the afternoon and when we woke up about 4 pm, Chester’s Cherry eye had regressed fully.

So the eye ointment once again was quite effective which suggests that maybe my dog’s Cherry eye was a result of some allergic reaction to who knows what?  The eye ointment has an anti-inflammatory agent that probably shrunk the Cherry eye enough for it to regress back under the eye lid.

I will probably expect these Cherry eye incidents to occur again with Chester so I should probably get a supply of that eye ointment on hand at home.

The vet is puzzled by Chester’s case because he doesn’t know what is setting off the Cherry eye on my dog.  He said that Cherry eye usually occurs more in younger dogs (my Chester is five years old).  And he adds that in most cases, Cherry eye does not regress as it tends to stay out which in turn requires surgery to correct it.

Well, as long as we have an effective treatment in the form of the eye ointment, than we can at least avert eye surgery indefinitely for Chester’s weird bouts of Cherry eye.

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Dog Ear Infections Same Time Each Year?

Friday, August 6th, 2010
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#dog #dogs #doghealth — Just got back from the vet for a followup visit and had my girl Roxie’s ear infection looked at.  But first, back to the booster vaccine issue.  We decided not to do the booster shot for the new Lyme disease vaccine.  I asked my vet if the first shot gives at least the same level of protection as last year and he said yes.  So we would rather risk the next few months left of the season rather than go for the booster shot for extra protection but results in another round of adverse reactions.

I’m kind of glad that we didn’t get those booster shots today.  I wouldn’t have been looking forward to see my two dogs spend another 24-48 hours feeling crappy.

My girl Roxie did get an ear infection in one of her ears last weekend and as mentioned on a recent post, I used Panalog that I still had.  The vet checked her ear and it looked pretty good.  He suggested using Panalog once a day for another five days.

The strange thing is that according to records, it was Roxie who got the ear infection last year and we used Panalog that time.  In fact, it was about the same time of year, July.  So the vet thinks that there might be something in season that she’s allergic to.  Maybe something in the woods that she rubbed her head against since she tends to like to check out different plants out there.

Have any of you ever had dog ear infections around the same time each year?  The vet doesn’t think it’s an internal ear canal thing but more external from something dogs might be allergic to.

If you have had dogs with recurrent ear infections around the same time of year regularly, please share your experience and what your vet said about them.  This will help shine a light to what might be happening out there.

fluffy
Creative Commons License photo credit: Pixel Addict

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Panalog Works Great For Dog Ear Infections

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
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#dog #dogs #doghealth  – Just when my boy Chester is recovering from his last bout of cherry eye with the help of that excellent BNPH ointment for his eye, my girl Roxie developed an ear infection on her right ear.  The entire inside ear was red with some more wax than usual.

Chester did get an ear infection a few months ago and the vet prescribed something that I used on my two previous dogs before.  This is Panalog ointment which is an antimicrobacterial agent.  It use to work wonders for my previous lhasa apsos and this time it worked really well for Chester as well.

Since I had quite a lot of leftover Panalog, I used it on Roxie a few nights ago.  In the morning, I noticed a dramatic improvement already with much less red in her ear.  I applied another dose in the morning and by evening, her ear had practically cleared up.

Rather than like the tube shown below, I always got Panalog, which is a yellow coloured ointment, in a little plastic bottle that the vet clinic dispenses it in.  This plastic bottle is quite handy in applying doses of Panalog directly to the ear canals of dogs.

Roxie will get morning and evening applications for a week even though her ear looks fine today.  Floppy ear dogs like lhasa apsos are prone to ear infections so it’s not surprising that both of my dogs had them.  In fact, I’m kind of surprised that my present dogs don’t get them more frequently as my previous lhasa apsos use to get their ears infected on a regular basis.

Panalog is definitely something very useful to have around especially if you have a floppy ear dog.  It’s one of the old standbys from the vet clinics as it had been around for some time.

panalog ointment dog ear infections

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Almost Forgot Sentinel Heartworm Meds

Monday, August 2nd, 2010
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#dogs #dog #doghealth  – It’s the beginning of August and for many dog owners, it will be the next dosage of heartworm prevention meds for their dogs.  I almost forgot as I didn’t give my two dogs their Sentinel heartworm meds last night so I made sure that I put the tablets out for this morning.

My two dogs are on Sentinel green and unlike what the product claims with their flavoured tablets, both of my dogs will not take the tablets in whole.  They will lick the coating off and leave the tablet.

So what I have to do is cut the Sentinel tablets into little pieces, some almost to a powder form and sprinkle it within their dog food. That’s the only way to get them to take the Sentinel heartworm medication successfully.

Even that, if the tablet pieces are too still too big, they have been known to leave them in their dog dishes while all their dog food is eaten.  So I really have to make those pieces small enough that they will finish all of their Sentinel dosage with their meals.

I have made reminders for myself to give them their heartworm prevention meds at the beginning of each month on my calendar through to Novemember now so hopefully I won’t forget next time.

If you live in a heartworm territory (and your vet should be able to advise you on that), it is well recommended to put your dog on heartworm prevention therapy each season.  In our case here in southern Ontario, the heartworm season runs from June to November.

All of the online pet pharmacies stock heartworm prevention medications including the brand that my two dogs are on which is Sentinel.  In fact, you would save some money by getting your heartworm meds through that route rather than directly from your vet clinic – just click on the link for more details on my experiences with the pet pharmacies.

sentinel heartworm prevention meds

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Enjoying No Cherry Eye On My Dog

Friday, July 30th, 2010
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#dog #dogs #doghealth  —  Well, we are still using the eye ointment on my dog Chester and certainly enjoying the fact that he has no cherry eye now.  It’s so nice to see his beautiful eyes in their real glory again!

He will still be on the ointment each day but for only one single dose at night for another week before we have a follow up appointment at the vet.

In case if some of you are still unclear about what cherry eye looks like again, here are some photos of other dogs with cherry eye.  It’s not a pleasant looking condition but is not painful for them fortunately.  However, they do have to have this condition corrected or else their eyes will get dry.

Nina up close with Cherry EyeCherry Eye
Creative Commons License photo credit: spacemanor
Creative Commons License photo credit: Chris-Gonzales90

You will notice that on one of the eyes in each of the dogs above, there is a red protrusion on the inside corner of the eye.  This is the gland that is responsible for about 1/3 of the eye’s tear production.  If this gland dries out after prolonged exposure like this, the dog will lose this 1/3 of tear production and the eye will get dry.  This will require eye drops permanently.

In most cases of cherry eye, surgery is required to correct it.  The vets will stitch this gland back underneath the eyelid.  In our case, the eye ointment worked to regress the cherry eye on Chester so surgery was averted.

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Cherry Eye Surgery Averted For My Dog

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
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#dog #dogs #doghealth

My dog Chester is in the phase where his dosage of BNPH ointment is down to twice per day and in a day, it will be down to once per day.  So far, his eye is looking great.  It’s so nice to see him with his normal eyes again.  So looks like with the success of the ointment treatment even after his last cherry eye episode where it stuck out for six days, surgery has been averted.

It will be interesting to see what my vet will have to say about possible cause since the ointment was so effective.  Also, we’ll need to know what happens from this point on.  I’m pretty sure that Chester will get cherry eye again for some reason.  Now if the ointment is always effective, then it could be as easy as applying it as soon as there are signs of cherry eye.

I don’t know yet if my vet will recommend a preventative strategy for cherry eye or not.  He might actually suggest that I have a constant supply of BNPH ointment at home but we’ll see in about two weeks when we go back for a follow up visit.

During this follow up visit, there’s a chance that both my dogs will get a booster of that new Lyme disease vaccine which I’m sure will result in some adverse reactions again, including another possible bout of cherry eye for Chester.  But armed with the ointment this time, things might be short lived.

Have anybody else had much success in preventing cherry eye with BNPH ointment?  I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments section.

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Cherry Eye Regressed After One Dose Of Ointment

Friday, July 23rd, 2010
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#dogs #dog #doghealth —  Talk about weird.  My body Chester developed his latest episode of cherry eye on Saturday and we think this latest one had something to do with the new Lyme disease vaccine he and his sister got on Friday.  Normally, Chester would get an episode of Cherry eye maybe once every other month and it would regress after about 24-48 hours by itself.  He had a previous episode only about three weeks ago prior to his vet checkup last week so when this current one popped up, it surprised me since it was so sudden.  Again, we attributed it to the vaccine.

However, this time around, his cherry eye did not regress.  In fact, if got worse and bigger.  Also different this time was about two days ago, he started to get this white discharge from his eye.  So I got my vet clinic to squeeze me into an appointment since it was already day six.

The vet checked Chester’s eye out and decided to try this ointment called BNP which is a combination of three different antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory agent for eyes.  He applied one dosage right there at the clinic to show me how.  We were to try this ointment for four times per day for a week and if Chester’s cherry eye regresses, I can bring it down to once or twice per day for the second week until I bring him in again for a follow up visit.  We would then re-evaluate whether surgery would then be the next step.

Well, after we got home, Chester’s cherry eye regressed all on its own!  This was after just one dosage of BNP and after six days of non-regression too.  Very weird but of course, a much welcomed sight!

So I’ll keep on with the BNP ointment and adjust dosage if directed.  I’ll put a call into the vet clinic with the happy results to see how the dosage will be modified now.  So looks like surgery for cherry eye has been avoided for now.

bnp ointment bnph cherry eye dog dogs

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Does Anybody Have Experience With Cherry Eye?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
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Cherry eye still not regressed on my dog Chester yet today and it’s day five now, the longest he’s gone through without it regressing.  Made an appointment to see the vet on Friday about it.

Does anybody here have any experience with a dog who has had a case of cherry eye?  Please share the experience at the comments section.

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